Duncan Bain of law firm Morgan Cole discusses the implications of the new UK Border Agency cap on migrant workers

The introduction of the cap by the UK Border Agency now means that only 1500 overseas recruits are allowed to be sponsored to work in the UK each month.

Overseas recruits have previously been allowed to fill all posts that could not be filled within the UK and so businesses have come to rely upon them heavily where skills are in shortage.

The government introduced an interim cap last year but the new permanent cap will make it increasingly difficult for Reading employers to fill these skills gaps.

The new system will lead to uncertainty over recruitment plans. In most cases an employer is now required to request, on a case by case basis, permission to sponsor an overseas candidate to enter the UK.

If the cap has been exceeded for the month they will be rejected.

On the 11th of each month the UK Border Agency will notify employers as to whether or not they have been successful. The unlucky ones will be reconsidered the following month but may have to wait even longer before their application is approved.

Applications are prioritised according to point scoring criteria and these criteria are bound to start influencing recruitment strategies. For instance, highly paid employees or staff in specified areas of recognised shortages are allocated more points and are therefore more likely to avoid delay.

Overseas recruitment is going to be made inherently less attractive by these changes. Good candidates who can find work in other countries may not wish to hang around whilst UK employers wait for the news as to whether or not the recruitment can proceed.

This will give UK / EEA workers more work opportunities, and they are no doubt as good as others in general terms but the problem is that in certain fields there may not be (at least in the short or medium term) strong enough candidates to avoid a drop in performance, and this will cause many local employers anxiety.

The government no doubt hopes that in the long term employers will focus on strategies to develop UK talent through training initiatives and engagement with education providers.

Despite the imposition of the cap, there are still modes of bringing overseas staff into the UK which avoid the cap.

For example, intra-company transfers (i.e. moving staff from group companies overseas) are not directly affected by these changes, though the requirements for such transfers have been tightened up.

In addition, a narrow range of appointments are excluded from the cap - most notably any person who is being offered a salary of more than £150,000 pa. Disappointingly for many, the Highly Skilled migrant route (aka Tier 1 General) has now closed and been replaced by a route which only absolutely stellar individuals will qualify under.

At Morgan Cole we are working with clients to ensure that their applications relating to new overseas recruits are given the maximum possible priority. In exceptional cases we are advising on ways to avoid the cap in cases of extreme urgency.

For further information or advice please contact Duncan Bain at Morgan Cole on 0118 955 3000 or visit www.morgan-cole.com